Reflection number three

This week we were required to look at 3 different digital technologies for use in the classroom to improve learning outcomes; images, audio and video. While I can see the benefits of each, as you know I have a special interest in film and television so the choice to focus on digital video was an easy one for me. Although I have spent a lot of time watching movies and shows and brainstorming my own ideas for screenplays I have had only a small amount of experience in the actual putting together and editing of footage for a video. Before today I also hadn't really thought about the benefits of using video's in the classroom for improving learning outcomes. There are many different ways video's can be incorporated into the classroom both as a tool to assist students learning and encourage higher order thinking.eg. acting as a visual aid or stimulus, or as an activity for students, to develop their technological skills as well as to increase their learning outcomes. During senior English in year 11 and 12 we were often asked to write persuasive essays, stories or feature articles pushing a particular point of view, positioning viewers to feel a certain way or appeal to the senses. Often we were asked to respond to a statement or the opinions of classmates on current issues. We were forced to express ourselves and evoke the emotion of readers through words. In this context the incorporation of video's can assist learning outcomes in two different ways. Firstly if the students were asked to make a video rather than write an essay they would be able to use powerful photo's, pictures or film to show their point of view. Sometimes a picture can speak a thousand words. Students would learn how the use of the slow motion effect on a video or the black and white effect on a photograph can enhance the power of a captured moment, how it can force a viewer to feel sad or reminiscent. They would also be able to add a song to evoke more emotion or add auditory narration if they wanted to add opinions, explain facts or tell a story. Using a video in this way encourages the same type of thinking but allows students to express their thoughts through a different medium. Secondly a video can be used as stimulus material, weather the teacher presents the students with a video or they view each other's and are then asked to respond, they are able to engage in higher order thinking. I made a video earlier today using Pinacle video studio, using a collaboration of pictures and film of my trip to Cambodia. I used pinnacle over movie maker simply because I have had a some prior experience with it. Although I picked it up quickly and it was usable and would probably be quite user friendly for older students, I would probably like to further investigate some of the other movie making programs to see if their scaffolding would be better suited for use by amateurs. I did find it very easy to upload my video to a youtube channel and embed it into my blog, so that also opens up the option for video sharing and collaborative learning. The following is Coldplay's music video for their song Strawberry Swing. I just thought it was a really cool example of a stop motion video which is one of the styles of video editing. Obviously this is professionally made and would take unbelievable hours of work but it would be a good example to show students to get them really excited about making a stop motion video of their own. It shows how you can make a moving 'movie' with an arrangement of still pictures/drawings with a voice over lay. I thought this would be cool idea to try with a young group of students, maybe grade 2-5. Perhaps it could be based on a nursery rhyme or on a story the students write themselves. The students could draw the pictures of the story and then record them narrate over top. This provides the opportunity for a lot of creative thinking on the students part, from the writing of the story, to the drawing or laying out of a backdrop, to taking the photos and then to making them into a video. For younger grades the lesson may not be in the video making itself, maybe the teacher could actually put it together but in the creative process. This is also a great opportunity for collaborative learning and it gives the students something to be really proud of. They can then upload it to their youtube channel or the class or individual's blog. The stop go video also opens up the discussion of how animations are made.Wow there's just so much I could write about the benefits of using video's as a technology in the classroom but I think you get the idea that there is multiple uses and multiple learning experiences to be had with this wonderful technology across all ages and types of learners.

Hopefully this is working now. Have a listen x

listen to ‘my first podcast for uni’ on Audioboo

Reflection Two

This week we were asked to look at and evaluate one of the three online tools that can be implemented in a classroom to improve learning experiences and outcomes. While I have had a little bit to do with blogs in the past, my experience has been limited to viewing and reading other peoples, I've never felt the need to create one of my own. I guess I never really thought I had anything to say. Over the last two weeks I have immersed myself in blogging, reading other peoples blogs, creating my own, choosing templates and backgrounds and adding photos and hyperlinks and only now have I discovered how easy and user friendly they are.

Although I have never really had a blog of my own I have always found them a fascinating way of connecting and keeping in touch with and track of friends travelling overseas. It wasn't until this week that I considered that the same benefits it provides of communicating with friends overseas  can be applied to a classroom. Having a blog either individually or as a class provides students with the ability to connect with each other as well as other students across all continents of the globe.

Creating a class blog gives students a sense of belonging and provides an opportunity for collaborative learning. Having students create their own blog allows them to play around with templates, fonts and colours and create a learning space that is individualised to them, this intern gives them a sense of  pride and ownership of their work as well as allowing them the opportunity to take responsibility of their own learning. Individual blogs also creates a platform for students to contribute and voice their own opinions which may be advantages for the quiet students who may not always get the chance of have the confidence to do so. Having a blog either as a class or as individual's allows students to be a part of an engaging and interactive online learning community, and in fact if no one's stopping us, why not do both.

The below you tube video was made by a teacher in Las Virgenes, California; Linda Yollis who talks about the benefits of blogging in the classroom. One of the points she mentions is that the use of her class blog revolutionizes the four walled classroom we've come to know.  Where a classroom used to be a very closed off environment where the teacher was the primary viewer of students work, the use of ICT tools, in particular blogs has allowed her class to be a part of an online learning community where parents are able to keep track of and take part in the child's learning experience.


I think this is one of the key benefits of the blog. Students; particularly young ones are often very excited about the activity they participated in or proud of the work they did at school. The blog allows them to share this work with their parents and gives the parents an opportunity to engage in their learning. Where the majority of learning used to be conducted by the teacher, in the classroom between the hours of 8 and 3, with access to the blog anywhere there is a computer students can enable each other's learning, wherever they go and at any time of the night or day.  I think If the introduction of a blog in the classroom can increase students enthusiasm towards learning or even improve one students learning experience I think that is a huge step for education. 

The introduction of these ICT tools are not without their problems the issue of internet safety and cyber bulling come into play, so they will have to come with rules and guidelines and close monitoring by the teacher but I believe they do have a place in the classroom and they could provide countless learning experiences and improve learning outcomes for our future students and that is something that I am excited about.
:)

De Bono's Hatsde Bono 17

Task 1

The first task I was exposed to in the Managing E-Learning subject was to complete a series of questions guided by the de Bono's thinking hats, drawing from my personal views on the use of mobile phones in classrooms, to assist learning. This asked me to reflect about the learning that was facilitated in the mobile phone wiki.

When I finally gained access to my moodle the day the first task of the assessment was due I was overwhelmed  to say the least. I had no prior experience with a wiki or the De Bono's thinking hats and infact had very little knowledge or understanding about anything technological. In a fluster I clicked on the wiki and started scanning the page, back and forth reading what other people had written.  Within a few minutes of looking at the wiki I was able to assure myself that it was really quite simple.  Once I clicked on the edit button I could easily see how to add and change the colour and style of my text.

When I learned that the wiki was revolved around our thoughts about the use of mobile phones in the class room, I smiled as my thoughts immediately took me back to two years ago when I was sitting in senior English, texting my friend across the classroom only somewhat aware of the teacher up the front waffling on about the importance of Shakespeare's work.  As the realisation came over me that In a matter of years I hope to be that poor teacher, I could have only one opinion and that was; phones definitely have no place in a classroom.

I opened up a word document and starting off with the negative hat, my thoughts poured out about all the reasons that I was opposed to phones in the classroom. As I continued in the activity the scaffolding of the wiki allowed me to read other students opinions and therefore gain more ideas and opinions of my own. The different de Bono's hats forced me to  look at the issue from a range of perspectives, from a negative and positive to a creative, intuitive, and objective point of view as well as the process of ideas that takes place to take me from one point of view to another.

I think the de Bono's thinking hats was very beneficial in allowing me to see this issue from a range of perspectives, it reflects slightly on cognitivism allowing us to see how our cognitive thought processes worked as we were forced to engage in a higher order of thinking.  The wiki also allowed me to easily read other people's opinions about the topics to therefore better my own. I found the wiki to be very user friendly and would definitely  consider it for use in the classroom to better the learning of my students.

Link to de Bono's hats 17 

Just a little bit about me...

My name is Sarah I’m 19 years old, I graduated from Shalom College in 2011. I love to travel and am interested in film and television. In my senior year of high school I took a trip to Cambodia where I was privileged enough to work with some children from the kais kids orphanage, it was here that I developed an appreciation for teaching and decided to pursue it as a career path. I have been sick for a couple of years and today is my first day of enrolling back in uni, which is a bit scary seeing as part of our first assignment is due tomorrow.  A couple of my best friends from high school are here at CQU and happen to be doing the exact same course as me, and thank god for that because I would be lost if Emma hadn’t come over this morning and shown me how to turn on the computer, open the internet and make a blog. No, seriously I’m not that bad but technology and I don’t have the closest bond, I’m always the last one of my friends to buy anything technological, I hate when my brother updates windows on the computer because I can never figure it out and I just generally claim to hate it. I won’t deny that this subject scares me a bit, however I don’t know where I would be over the past couple of years without having access to online movies sites, so I think I think it’s only fair that I give technology a shot. Unfortunately I don’t have a blog post for you about last week’s readings because I’m still madly trying to figure out what I need to do for tomorrow’s assignment, however in a couple of weeks hopefully I will be all up to date, I look forward to reading many of your blogs and sorry if you wasted your time reading this. x